Q: What, if anything, do our law enforcement officers do about vehicles with illegal window tinting on their windshields and front side windows? Why can’t cars be inspected for possible violations when they are smogged? Why aren’t businesses that do illegal window tinting cited for doing tinting that is against the law? I ask because today I was walking in a crosswalk and I could not make eye contact with the car driver — I couldn’t even see them. Their front window was tinted.
— Sandra Sturla, San Clemente
A: Officers and deputies across the state can give warnings, fix-it tickets or citations to drivers with illegal tinting at their discretion, when they determine it is the best use of their time at that moment.
Surely, plenty of cops don’t like walking up to a darkened driver’s side window, and Honk, like you, Sandra, wants to look a motorist in the eyes before stepping in front of them in a crosswalk.
Those who test vehicles at smog checks lack legal authority to tell someone to yank off their tinting. State legislators likely could empower them, if they wanted to and the smog checkers went along with it.
“Even though window tint beyond the factory tint is illegal (in the front), many tint shops merely advise their customers that it is illegal to operate (with) the dark tint on the front windshield (and) front windows,” Sgt. Kyle Ishii, of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Traffic Bureau, kindly explained to Honk in an email.
“In theory, if you have a doctor’s note, you can legally operate a vehicle with darker window tint during daytime operations and would need to drive with the windows down at night,” he said.
“Letter of the law makes it illegal for an installer to tint the front windows and/or windshield,” Ishii added. “It is an infraction, which means it would have to be committed in our presence to cite.”
Which could be tricky to actually see the Installer do it.
“We have to balance the demands of our personnel with the time that it would require to sit outside tint shops every day and cite installers for these infractions,” the sergeant said.
Q: Hello, friend! I frequently travel to Fresno using the 5 Freeway, north through the Grapevine. Lately, it has taken up to three hours (for 10 or so miles!!!) to get from Lebec to the Grapevine due to horrendous, nearly stopped traffic. I have tried calling the California Highway Patrol office in Lebec when I am passing through Sylmar, but they are closed on the weekends when I am making that trip. Is there some way to get real-time traffic conditions for a specific area so that, say, I could divert? I’d much rather take an extra 30 minutes to do that than sit on the 5. Thank you for your usual expert attention to this matter!
— Marty Haynes, Placentia
A: It’s app time, Marty.
Honk has long preferred Waze, so much so that he hasn’t tried other options. Perfect? No, but that app is impressive with its accuracy.
Mrs. Honk, who has used Waze, prefers Apple Maps. And there are other options you could deploy.
HONKING FACT: In Norwalk, at the end of the 105 Freeway at Studebaker Road, crashes happen. Nearby lives Oswald Ponce, who started an Instagram account, @105exitcrashes, now with 22,000 followers, that documents the collisions. Caltrans has made improvements to the intersection, and plans to do more, the agency told ABC7.
Ponce has a sign on a telephone pole in the area that, at least recently, was optimistic. He and others update it. “132 days since last incident,” it read.“(It’s) probably the first time it’s reached 100 days here without a crash in years,” he told the station.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. Twitter: @OCRegisterHonk